Prize Fiesta: Is it a scam? or genuine?
- Mark ANDERSON
- 4 avr. 2017
- 3 min de lecture
Danger Mouse & Penfold are investigating.
Apart from online casinos, It is rather unusual to win prizes on online games. Especially from one claiming it's not gambling. It is then natural to ask the question.
IS THIS A SCAM ? or IS THIS GENUINE ?
Danger Mouse is gathering facts.
The aim is to look for legal information, testimonies, interrogate potential winners, test the game and finally investigate about the game's publisher.
App rating
The rating is good on iOS, between 4,2 and 5 stars depending on the store The Android rating is 4.7 stars and Facebook has 4.3 with a large amount of voters.
Winners photographs
The publisher claims they have delivered more than 3000 prizes. They display about 750 pictures of winners holding their prizes. Legal information The legal documents provided are: Sweepstakes rules, Terms of Service (including the membership rewards program) and Privacy Policy.
What people say about it
In general, people look rather positive about it. Still, some have posted very negative comments. On the other side you find very positive comments.
The publisher
Full Game Ahead is a Hong Kong publisher and has been on the market for 8 years. Their games are created by an independent studio: Lagoon software.
Penfold is analyzing the evidence.
"Let's have a look at the information collected by Danger Mouse."
App rating
In general, on iOS, Android or Facebook, app votes are genuine as they are managed by the platform (Apple, Google, Facebook). These platforms include algorithms to prevent from fake ratings (especially Apple). On all platform, Prize Fiesta rating is above average. This is a good sign but does not prove anything.
Winners photographs
750 pictures are published around 3000 winners this represents 25%. That means only 1/4 of winners are publishing their pictures with their prize on social networks. Actually I would have expected it to be less.
Now, let's have a closer look at these pictures. How much photoshop is involved? The pictures are real, but have obviously been improved (light/color balance/frame). Some people sometimes appear 2 or 3 times (probably because they won multiple prizes.) We still have over 550 different faces. These pictures are an extremely good sign. Even with only 550 different persons, it is hard to imagine that a game would have found 550 people to hold prizes and then pay them to keep the secret. These pictures are obviously taken by amateurs, and for that reason, they constitute a good proof.
Legal information
The sweepstakes rules were obviously prepared by attorneys, you can tell because of the language used. They mention United States and European Union references. Probably because the game needs to comply with specific laws in these two territories. The terms and condition are also clearly prepared by attorneys. They look very similar to what you usually get on other games. And, the privacy policy is very standard. I don't see any legal issue and didn't find anything suspicious.
The fact that these rules are very detailed and comprehensive is actually very good. This shows that the company's objective is to comply perfectly with the law.
What people say about it
There are lot's of comments on the web (particularly on Facebook) we have read over 800 comments. 72% of them are positive, 21% are neutral and 7% are negative. This is a good ratio showing the game is generaly appreciated.
The publisher
Full Game Ahead is a Hong Kong publisher's company since 2009, but they don't create their games themselves. All their games are built by another company: Lagoon Software. They have created games using the prize economic model for 8 years. From what we see on the web, we think they have never encountered any significant issue.
Danger Mouse and Penfold are presenting their conclusions.
OUR INVESTIGATION SHOWS: PRIZE FIESTA IS GENUINE. BECAUSE... It is legal, it complies with US and EU laws, and it does what they say. They have lot's of winners and the prizes are properly delivered.
BUT...
We find the marketing aggressive as winning is not in fact as fast they let you imagine. Additionally... Some people are unhappy about this; and find it too long to win. At the end of the day, I think it's not be a problem as people aren't complaining about other games when these other games don't give any opportunity to win something.
